LG is perhaps better known for its feature phones and its budget Android devices, but it’s done a great job here. Surprisingly, LG has stuck with the Optimus tag we’ve come to associate with its Android phones, but perhaps that’s to show the hardware is more important here than the OS on which it runs.

In any case, the E900 manages to be every bit an equal to the consistently dependable HTC models in the Windows Phone 7 line-up, and actually surpasses the Trophy and Mozart models.

In its favour are the standard 480x800-pixel display, 1GHz processor, 5Mp camera and sleek styling. At 11.5mm thick, this handset is appreciably slimmer than the HTC devices and the chunky Motorola Milestone 2 on Android. Looks-wise it’s no Samsung Omnia 7, but it’s certainly a more attractive piece of gadgetry than the HTC Mozart or Trophy. Although dominated by that 3.8in WVGA screen, LG has found space to include hardware navigation buttons - a sensible move that some users will prefer.

Getting around the Window Phone 7 interface is pretty much the same on all the handsets; Microsoft has learnt lessons from Google Android here: overlay interfaces help distinguish devices but can cause problems when it’s time to upgrade to a newer version of the mobile OS. (The first Windows Phone 7 update, released in February, was not without its issues.)

LG does, though, include its own visual spin in the form of ScanSearch. This combines the Google Maps data with GPS information to provide an augmented reality element in much the same vein as the vaunted Layar app found on some Samsung Android handsets. Can’t see the bar you’re meeting at for looking? ScanSearch will show it to you. As with all such clever, clever apps, though, it’s dependent on solid 3G and GPS signals and the information that’s fed in to it in the first place.

The other notable feature here is the panorama stitching feature for the 5Mp camera. Fire off a series of overlapping shots and the LG will make sense of them. The 1GHz CPU and the generous 16GB of internal storage help make this likable, surprisingly effective, feature viable.

LG has done a great job with the LG Optimus 7 E900. It’s an attractive smartphone that’s a pleasure to use, isn’t so large as to be unwieldy, and is powerful enough to last a day or two between charges.

The LG Optimus Black P970 is an Android 2.2.2 (Froyo) smartphone with a custom skinned UI. It is powered by a 1GHz processor and a PowerVR SGX530 GPU and has 512MB of RAM along with 2GB of internal memory expandable up to 32GB through microSD.

The LG Optimus 4X HD is powered by an Nvidia 1.5GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor and has a 4.7-inch True HD IPS touchscreen with a resolution of 720 x 1280. Available in the UK for for around £450 SIM free, read our LG Optimus 4X HD review to find out if it is worth your money.

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Niki Rust said: I had this phone for 6 months and from the start I had problems The phone overheats whilst charging regularly causing it to restart It also overheats when you use it for an extended period of time 15 minutes or more - which is a relatively common amount of time to use on a smartphone For some reason WhatsApp in particular really overheats the phone When it gets to a certain temperature it turns off and restarts but often gets stuck on the LG logo at the start Finally after doing this for 6 months it wont turn on at all Total waste of money Do not buy

Niki Rust said: I had this phone for 6 months and from the start I had problems The phone overheats whilst charging regularly causing it to restart It also overheats when you use it for an extended period of time 15 minutes or more - which is a relatively common amount of time to use on a smartphone For some reason WhatsApp in particular really overheats the phone When it gets to a certain temperature it turns off and restarts but often gets stuck on the LG logo at the start Finally after doing this for 6 months it wont turn on at all Total waste of money Do not buy

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